The RNA binding protein Nab2 genetically interacts with multiple RNA exosome cofactors to regulate target RNAs

RNA binding proteins play important roles in the processing and precise regulation of RNAs. Highlighting the biological importance of RNA binding proteins is the increasing number of human diseases that result from mutations in genes that encode these proteins. We recently discovered that mutations in the ZC3H14 gene, which encodes an evolutionarily conserved polyadenosine RNA-binding protein, cause intellectual disability. Studies of the budding yeast orthologue of ZC3H14, Nuclear Poly(A) Binding protein 2 (Nab2), have provided insight into the functions of this protein. The NAB2 gene is essential in S. cerevisiae, and conditional nab2 mutants cause defects in a number of steps in RNA processing. To explore the critical functions of the Nab2/ZC3H14 protein family, we performed a high-copy suppressor screen on nab2 mutant cells. This screen identified genes encoding two core subunits of the RNA exosome, as well as Nrd1 and Ski7, nuclear and cytoplasmic cofactors of the RNA exosome, respectively. Nrd1 is an RNA binding protein that is part of the Nrd1-Nab3-Sen1 (NNS) complex, which plays an important role in transcription termination of non-coding RNAs. Ski7 is a GTP-binding protein that mediates interaction between the RNA exosome and the Ski complex, which targets RNA transcripts to the exosome for processing and degradation in the cytoplasm. To explore the functional interactions between the RNA exosome and Nab2, we employed RNA-seq analysis to identify the transcripts most impacted by overexpression of these exosome cofactors in nab2 mutant cells. This analysis revealed that many transcripts show small changes in steady-state levels, consistent with a global role of Nab2 in modulating transcript stability. This study uncovers functional interactions between the RNA exosome and Nab2 in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm.